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Beam announced its launch on the live mainnet just in time for the tenth anniversary of Bitcoin. Based on the Mimblewimble protocol, the brand new cryptocurrency has few high objectives and, among these, make cryptocurrency transactions "drastically" more confidential.
Another noteworthy aspect of the cryptocurrency that might end up rivaling Zcash and Monero is that Beam is the first ever project to implement the "Mimblewimble" protocol. It was a widely applauded blockchain protocol, proposed anonymously in 2016 (does it sound familiar?) With the goal of bringing privacy back to encrypted transactions.
If it all sounds like a bunch of Harry Potter Hocus Pocus, it's probably because it is. The Mimblewimble protocol derives its name from a spell in children's books that prevents people from paying secrets.
Beam: First project to use the Mimblewimble protocol
The main premise behind the anonymous Mimblewimble protocol is to offer cryptographic transactions that are significantly more confidential than those made with Bitcoin, Ethereum, or even "privacy" coins like Monero.
Cryptocurrencies, in particular Bitcoin, originally emerged as a way to allow the storage and transfer of values oriented to privacy. However, over time it became clear that Bitcoin was not as anonymous as people thought. Data losses could easily lead to the mapping of public addresses using forensic blockchain technology. To tackle these problems, cryptocurrencies like Monero and Zcash appeared on the scene, but not without their problems. For starters, while these coins have a strong privacy bias, not all of their transactions are ultimately private. Both blockchains face similar scalability problems.
Beam, therefore, is aiming to become the maximum cryptocurrency of "storage-of-value" and payment, continuing the revolution established by Bitcoin, through its focus on anonymity.
After all, true confidentiality and scalability for financial transactions is a requirement not only of institutions and investors, but also of individuals. Both of these factors are considered necessary for the effective adoption of the crypt.
Beam CEO Alexander Zaidelson said:
The sovereignty over one's own information is a fundamental human right and applies to all aspects of life, and in particular to financial transactions … Anyone, from the major institutional investors to the cryptocurrency holder, should have the right to decide what to disclose and who.
Combine Mimblewimble with other features
Beam combines Mimblewimble with additional features to provide true privacy to users on its network. Beam's blockchain remains a distributed ledger allowing for decentralized transaction validation. However, no observer can obtain any private information about the sender, the recipient or the amount negotiated.
The blockchain size is expected to be between 3-10 times smaller than Bitcoin (taking into account the same amount of use) thanks to the Mimblewimble Transaction Cut-through function.
Another interesting feature of Beam is that users will have the option of opting for checks on their accounts and transactions, which could be extremely useful for tax and accounting purposes.
Beam is brand new on the mainnet and, according to his announcement of the creators on Medium, which probably contains bugs, flaws and errors while working on the implementation of improvements.
As developers begin to add key features such as atomic exchange with Bitcoin, mobile wallet, pool support and bitcoin wallet integration, Beam has the potential to attract traditional cryptographic users who have left the market due to privacy issues or failing to do so. to see coins like Monero as an attractive option. Ffinancial institutions are also likely to see value in a blockchain that allows private transactions for their clients.
Can Beam and MimbleWimble rival coins focus on privacy like Monero and ZCash? Share your thoughts below!
images courtesy of Shutterstock
